Six in custody after off-duty agent fired upon at IHOP

McALLEN — Police detained six people in connection with a shooting that involved an off-duty U.S. Border Patrol agent and his daughter Wednesday morning in Mission.

Police believe two men were immediately involved in the shooting, which occurred about 1 a.m. Wednesday on the 300 block of Shary Road, said Sgt. Jody Tittle, a Mission police spokesman.

The off-duty agent told police he noticed a vehicle had followed him late Tuesday night from northern Hidalgo County to Mission, Tittle said.

The men following the Border Patrol agent confronted him and displayed a gun near the parking lot of IHOP, 314 N. Shary Road, police said.

The agent displayed his weapon and one of the men fired one round from a pistol into the agent's dashboard, police said. The suspects then fled the area.

No one was injured in the shooting.

Further investigation into the case led police to detain three men and three women Wednesday afternoon.

Investigators continued to question the sextet Wednesday evening, Tittle said. Any criminal charges to be filed in the case will likely be brought today, he added.

Information that investigators gathered led them Wednesday morning to a house on Lindberg Avenue in McAllen, where police seized three pickup trucks, according to authorities.

Inside the house's garage were several Santa Muerte, or Saint Death, statues and candles - objects often affiliated with drug or immigrant stash houses. No drugs were seized from the McAllen house late Wednesday morning, police said.

Officers executed other search warrants looking for drugs late Wednesday afternoon but would not confirm whether any illegal substances had been found.

The off-duty agent had planned to drop his young daughter off with her grandmother, police said.

U.S. Border Patrol spokesman John Lopez confirmed the agent works in the agency's Tucson Sector and that he was off duty at the time of the shooting.

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La Frontera staff writer Martha L. Hernández contributed to this report.

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Jared Taylor covers law enforcement and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4439.